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Chandler to
Salt River Project:

A
little more forethought, please

By Doug Snover

February 18, 2006

No more
surprises, please.

That’s the
gist of a Chandler proposal to work more
closely with Salt River Project on the
utility’s plans for expansion throughout
the city.

On Feb. 9,
the Chandler City Council directed its
staff to work with Salt River project to
change the way the utility goes about
its business of siting new powerlines.

The
Chandler staff report cites “the need
for more direct city and neighborhood
participation in the SRP power line
planning process.”

Chandler
and Tempe officials were caught off
guard last year when SRP announced plans
to string a new 69-kilovolt power line
through the Kyrene Corridor to connect
the Hanger substation at Guadalupe Road
and the Loop 101 freeway with the
Houston Substation on McClintock Road,
north of Ray Road.

Linking
these two substations will effectively
tie together all of the substations in
that portion of the SRP power system to
help ensure reliability, utility
officials say.

If city
officials were caught off guard,
residents were blindsided.

By the
time SRP hosted the first public “open
house” on the possible power line routes
on Oct. 27, public opposition was
growing quickly.

“NO to
SRP Powerlines on McClintock,” said
signs that appeared briefly along
McClintock Drive. The realistic orange
boards had orange warning flags and
flashing lights to add authenticity and
a sense of urgency.

“I
certainly don’t want to see them
marching down McClintock Road,” Tempe
Councilwoman Pam Goronkin said of SRP’s
proposal to erect new power poles.

Goronkin
said Tempe City Council members have
received “dozens and dozens” of emails
from residents opposed to putting new
power poles in an area where the city
has spent more than $3 million since the
mid-1990s burying smaller power lines.

Salt River
Project eventually selected a Loop
101-Ray Road route for the power line,
and agreed with the two cities to use
“aesthetics funds” provided by SRP to
bury nearly a mile of the high-voltage
line near residential areas along
southbound Price Road on the west side
of Loop 101 between Warner and Ray
roads.

Chandler,
however, does not want a repeat of the
controversy.

Specifically, Chandler wants to see:

More
comprehensive documentation of the costs
and impacts of planned SRP power line
upgrades

Earlier
advance notice of planned improvements

Public
meetings in a format more responsive to
neighborhood concerns

Creation
of neighborhood working groups to
represent areas potentially affected by
power line projects.

The
Chandler City Council also is holding
onto its threat to pass an ordinance
“requiring future power lines to be
placed underground,” according to the
staff report.

Actually,
talks between the city and utility had
started several weeks before the
Chandler Council’s Feb. 9 vote.

Chandler
Public Works Director Bryan Patterson
estimated the talks could last until the
end of September.

The good news, meanwhile, is that
Chandler officials have reviewed SRP’s
five-year work program and found that
“while there will be some substation
improvements, pole replacements, and
line upgrades, none of the planned
projects will require installation of
new 69-kV poles.”